Podcast – mediageek radioshow

On this penultimate edition of mediageek I take a look back at two segments exploring unlicensed radio. First, we revisit some audio from the Radio Access Democracy conference in 2004, including interviews with participants of a transmitter building workshop. Then we listen to an interview with filmmaker Michael Lahey who produced the documentary Making Waves, which looks at the pirate radio scene in Tucson, AZ. Podcast/Download: mediageek 24 December 2009 broadcast quality mp3 Listen Now: [mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20091224.mp3[/mp3]

The big news this week is that the House finally voted on and passed the Local Community Radio Act of 2009. Now that we’re half-way to the restoration of LPFM I thought we’d take a look back at some of the pressure that caused the FCC to create LPFM in the first place. We revisit two interviews about Radio Free Brattleboro, a Vermont-based unlicensed micropower station that would–at least in spirit–be reincarnated as Brattleboro Community Radio. Podcast/Download mediageek 17 December 2009 broadcast quality mp3 Listen Now: [mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20091217.mp3[/mp3]

The mediageek radioshow is coming to a close with the end of 2009, so for the last four shows we’ll be listening to some of Paul’s favorite interviews from the last seven years. On today’s program we listen to two different interviews with media pranksters and identity correctors, the Yes Men. First we listen to an interview that first aired on Dec. 24, 2004, after the Yes Men impersonated Dow Chemical spokesmen to take responsibility for the Bhopal disaster, live on the BBC. Then we listen to an interview that aired May 16, 2006 after the Yes Men successfully demonstrated Halliburton’s new Survivaball that helps corporate executives survive the rising tides of climate change. Podcast/Download: mediageek 10 December 2009 broadcast quality mp3 Listen Now: [mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20091210.mp3[/mp3]

This week we discuss the ten-year anniversary of Indymedia and the “Battle in Seattle.” Also, an important announcement about the radioshow. Download/Podcast: mediageek 3 December 2009 broadcast quality mp3 Listen Now: [mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20091203.mp3[/mp3]

At a time when media and information technology continues to become more pervasive, it stands to question whether all this tech actually gives us access to the information we need to live our lives better as individuals and citizens. The Knight Commission was formed to investigate the information needs of communities in a democracy and recently released a report that assesses the types of information needed and makes recommendations for meeting those needs. Already the report has garnered attention from both government agencies like the FCC, industry and citizens groups. Charlie Firestone, Aspen Institute Executive Director of the Communications and Society Program and Knight Commission Project, joins to tell us more about the Knight Commission and its findings. Download/Podcast: mediageek 12 November 2009 broadcast quality mp3 Listen Now: [mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20091112.mp3[/mp3]